“You should not put your own money at risk,” Rep. Barney Frank said to federally-insured banks Wednesday on CBS This Morning. “We now have a stronger argument for a Volcker Rule that says ‘No’ to a bank: ‘Your main job is lending and managing the money of your clients.’” Frank’s argument got a shot in the arm last week when JPMorgan revealed that a set of trades aimed at hedging wound up costing the firm more than $2 billion. The bungle may have also tipped the industry’s hand. A bank using its own money to hedge against losses would be permissible under the work-in-progress Volker Rule, but...

“JPMorgan Chase Loses $2B in Poorly Monitored Synthetic Hedge.” Headlines like this have abounded since Thursday, screaming out for a standup comedian, you know, one of the smart-mouth ones like Jon Stewart, to riff off: • “Hey, when I lose my keys, I look behind the fridge … did they try that yet?” • “Jeez … for $2B I can get them a real hedge, and I can even throw in a shrubbery!” But this event further opens the door for critique from those of us who have been selling real-time analytics software — and frequently discussing our key use cases on trade and position monitoring. The...

Some welcome good news for financial institutions came out in April’s “Building a Data Management Foundaton” webcast. Most respondents (80%) felt that their current data management systems are in good shape for future regulatory requirements. These regulatory requirements include Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) adoption, where a plurality have either made necessary changes or have a plan to do so. More good news are the anticipated benefits from LEI – with over 86% of the audience convinced that LEI will be a positive change within 5 years of adoption. In March 2012, Ira...